Stellar Cartography

Cover of Stellar Cartography

New Cover 2018

The book Stellar Cartography is a book written by Star Trek expert Larry Nemecek, published in December 2013. It explains several star maps of the known alpha quadrant and includes several large star charts, including one map entirely in klingon. Marc Okrand was not involved in the creation of the map, so it is not canon.

First edition 2013

Klingon map

The map of the klingon empire is entirely written in traditional klingon pIqaD letters. Many of the words are written correctly (like vulqan for Vulcan (1)), but there is also lots of strange and incorrect transliterations. Larry Nemecek wrote the book, but was not responsible for the creation of the maps. Due to lack of time in the production, the art team had no time for consulting experienced Klingonists to verify the klingon. (2) Instead of that, they have obviously used the Bing translator instead.

Analysis

Imperial Klingon Empire

The first line of the title reads: DaHjaj tabe 'nalwI'. Moving the incorrect space and adding the missing apostrophe(3), you get DaHjaj ta'be'nalwI', meaning "Today my emperor wife". This is exactly what Bing gives you when translating "Imperial". This may be explained by the usage of Hamlet in the software's database, where there is a line in Act 1, Scene 2:

Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,

DotlhwIj vIqawmo' je. vaj ben be'nI'wI',
DaHjaj ta'be'nalwI' je, Qojbogh wo'vam

The second part Klingon Empire is correctly translated as tlhIngan wo', but now there's a big mistake in the writing of the klingon letters. It is typed: tlHInghan wo which means the letters tlh and ng are transcribed seperately and therefore creating nonsense when written in pIqaD. The apostrophe of wo' is missing entirely.

Text

When transliterating the text, it does not make much sense at all:

He rue xtent anD laImS
echreeD by tHe IghH ounchIl
nD tHe oSt earSome anD ormIDable
orD Hanchellor oval
n tHe ear ong aHleSS 893

But when you write all letters in lowercase and add some missing first letters of the words, you can see that it is no klingon at all:

The true extent and claims
decreed by the high council
and the most fearsome and formidable
lord chancellor Koval
in the year of Kahless 893

Revised Edition 2018

The author has corrected typos and textual errors for the book to be published in 2018. The Klingon language parts on the map were corrected as well, in cooperation with the help of Klingon Expert Lieven L. Litaer. (4)